Day: March 6, 2018

    The Government will keep spending money on contingency plans for a no deal Brexit until shortly before the planned withdrawal date of March 29 2019, in case a proposed transition deal falls through, David Davis has said. Even if political agreement on the transition is reached at this month’s European Council summit, Mr Davis said that preparations for a no-deal outcome must continue until the plan is formally ratified probably in the final weeks of this year. His comment appears to put him at odds with Chancellor Philip Hammond, who told the Commons European Scrutiny Committee on Monday he expected to be able to stand down preparations for a no deal Brexit once the transition deal is agreed. Crashing out without a deal in March 2019 would probably require signific...

    Theresa May is heading toward an inevitable capitulation with the EU and a soft Brexit that would keep Britain inside the European customs union, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst Samuel Tombs. The prime minister has no choice, Tombs believes, because she cannot get any other type of deal through parliament, and because the EU has a stronger negotiating position than Britain. Staying inside the customs union is also the only way to solve the problem of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, Tombs wrote in a note to clients last week. On Friday, May repeated that she believes the UK must leave the EU's borderless custom union. She is being pushed by the right-wing of her party to extract Britain from the EU's single market, its customs rules, an...